Dinner With James Sunderland
by ACID35
Summary: Ah, James Sunderland. Perhaps you think you know this man, but I would wager not. I had the great opportunity to dine with him one evening. Well, it most certainly didn't go as planned. Come, see my story. I'm sure you will find it as amusing as I do.
1. Chapter 1

Dinner with James Sunderland

Ah yes, James Sunderland. Commonly known for his misadventures within the town called Silent Hill. But who is he really? What type of man resides under that cool persona of his. I can happily answer that question, he's absolutely crazy. A complete mad man, truly. What with his completely monotone voice, lack of emotion, tacky clothing, and that constant drive to find his dead wife Maria, it can be seen clearly why my statement holds true. I unfortunately found out just how crazy he was the hard way, by inviting the man over for dinner.

I was twenty six at that time. I'd already shared a few events with James in the past, so we were on friendly terms. This is why he accepted my invitation to come over and eat. However, I don't think he fully understood the concept of "company dining". My first red flag should have been when I called up James to invite him over. It took several calls before he finally picked, and when he did… the conversation went… south.

"Hello?" He droned into his phone.

I cleared my throat, "Hello yes, James? It's me, Alex."

"Alex?" Harry's voice showed no signs of emotion, straight monotone emptiness.

"Yes… Alex. You recall? You and I went on several trips together in the past, one was with Raiden."

"Raiden?"

"Yes… Raiden. Look, do you remember me at all James?"

"Yes." There was a long silence between us, a very long silence. As you can tell, James social skills were lacking. He was a man of few words, and even fewer manners. Deep down I knew that my best option was to hang up the phone right then and there.

I was young however, and foolish, so I continued to talk, "Well James… I was wondering if you were free tonight."

"What's happening tonight?" He asked.

"Dinner." I replied.

"Dinner?"

"Yes, at my house James I was…"

"Why does it matter if there's dinner at your house? What's going on?"

"Let me finish and I can tell you." Now, keep in mind that I was still very young, and didn't understand fully who I was talking to. This was James Sunderland, the man who had fought two pyramid heads at once and successfully killed them, the man who survived Silent Hill and returned home with a child. Me getting testy was a foolish move on my part. Without knowing it, I had created one of the most dangerous stories of my life.

"Are you… getting angry at me?" James questioned, it was the first time I heard any sort of emotion in his voice - anger.

"Uh, no James, not at all." I replied quickly. "Listen, I was wondering if you wanted to eat dinner with me?"

"With… you?"

"Yeah, with me. Would you like to?"

Again there was an extremely long pause, and without a reply from James, I heard him hang up. So it seemed that I would be dining alone that night. I knew then that I had probably said something to upset him but, it didn't bother me too much. My evening went on normally after that point, I cooked up some pasta, turned on my television, and began to relax.

There was something I hadn't taken into account however. It was true that James hadn't said yes to my invitation, but he hadn't said no either. He simply had hung up his phone. It never occurred to me that he still may come over. Again, I was such a young pup my mind still had not wrapped around just how peculiar some people can be.

Sure enough around eleven o'clock at night, I hear my door bell ring. I was surprised, to say the least, and as I walked to the door I couldn't help but wonder who was ringing at such a late hour. Since it was so late I thought it a better idea to question who it was before opening my door.

"Who is it?" I called.

"It's me… James."

"James?" Who wouldn't have been surprised? It was eleven at night, the man came over for dinner now? Surely not, he must have come for some other reason, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for dinner." He replied.

"James… it's eleven at night!"

There was a slight delay to his response, "Can I come in?"

What was I to do? I could not turn away such an opportunity as this, so slowly, I opened the door. James looked just the same as every other time I had seen him. It seemed as though the man never aged over a day. He wore the same green overcoat he had worn for years, his hair was even cut the same way.

He walked into my house with calm strides. He looked around for a moment, then turned to me. "Is… Maria here?"

"Maria? Oh you mean your wife… uh no she's not here James."

James looked at the ground, "Then why?" I couldn't tell if he was upset or angry, either way I knew James wasn't feeling at his best.

"Well, I put away dinner a while ago… I thought you weren't coming…"

He looked up at me, "But you asked me to come. Why wouldn't I come? Did you think I would leave you?" James took a step towards me, I naturally took a step back.

"Let's… get the food ready." Honestly I didn't know what to say to this man, James never was a normal person to begin with but today seemed even worse. I quickly walked over to my refrigerator and pulled out the left over spaghetti. I reheated it as quickly as I could and placed it down on my kitchen table.

"There we are. All set. Here James, let's have dinner." I offered him a chair as I spoke. James looked at me, then at the food, he looked around the room once more.

"Maria." He whispered.

"No, spaghetti." I Answered sitting him down. James continued to mumble as I found my own seat. "Now, would you like something to drink James?"

James looked at the bowl of food in front of him, I assumed he hadn't heard me.

"James?"

Still no reply, James looked up from the food and brushed his hand through his hair. "This place, is… so quiet."

"That's because it's eleven thirty on a weekday James, pretty much everyone's sleeping."

"Well… why aren't you? Why should we be allowed to have dinner at this time when everyone else has to sleep?" James sounded like a whining child, as he spoke the lights in my house dimmed some; and it was at this moment I realized that things were far from normal around this guy. I thought perhaps that some of Silent Hill had maybe followed him here.

"Ok James… look I don't know if you realized this but you can eat pretty much whenever you want."

James nodded and stuck a fork into his spaghetti. "That's what Maria would always say."

I raised an eyebrow, "You two, you guys would talk about times of eating?"

"Yeah among other things." James said with a wicked laugh. You see, James didn't know how to express anger. Let me rephrase, James didn't know how to express any sort of emotion whatsoever. This was a prime example of that fact. James began to laugh hysterically as sad music began to play in the background.

"James…" I said somberly, falling right into character for this particular act.

He shook his head, "No, it's alright… really. I… I was just thinking about Maria." James peered at his bowl of food, "Hey, wait a minute! Is this… Maria?" He asked looking at the spaghetti.

The queer question made me shift in my seat uncomfortably, "No James, that's… spaghetti."

"I don't want ss-spagehti…" He said bitterly. "I want Maria!" He yelled slamming his fork into the noodles. His bowl broke instantly, the room grew heavy with awkward.

I stared at him with wide eyes, "Ok, I see that your upset… how about we just move straight onto dessert." I stood up quickly, not even bothering to hear what James had to say. Another mistake on my part. As soon as I had turned my back on the man, there was a scuttle of a chair and table moving. My head spun around quickly, James was no where to be found.

"James?" I called out into the darkness of my house, there was no reply. Yes, because of my foolhardy actions I would now have to find James Sunderland in my house. The hunt had begun, only, I wasn't the hunter. No, I was the hunted.


	2. Chapter 2

_**- Prior Note for recent commentary : yes, you are correct, the real name of James wife is Mary. But James used the title Maria. To this day I do not know why, perhaps he enjoyed the so called woman Maria over Mary. Who knows, for now, let us continue.-**_

_**My evening plans had gone from a calm dinner with Mr. Sunderland to an night of terror. He had vanished completely from my dinner table, hidden within the refuge of darkness. **_

"_**James?" I called out once again, hoping he would reappear from the shadows. I was answered with all the lights in my house turning off. "Oh boy…" **_

_**It seemed that James had found my fuse box resting in the basement, and if that was the case it meant I would have to venture after him. I stumbled through the darkness, making my way to a small closet near my bathroom's door. Inside I found a large flash light and a fly swatter. **_

_**Why a fly swatter you ask? To explain bluntly, it was the only object I could find that would qualify as a weapon at the time. The good news was that I now had a source of light, which would aid me in my search for James. However, what I didn't realize at the time was that I wasn't hunting James… no… he was hunting me. **_

"_**Maria…" James's voice cackled off in the distance. He began to laugh, I could hear sobs in between his dark chuckles. **_

"_**James, this isn't funny!" I called out into the darkness. I flashed my light this way and that, slowly making my way to the basement. It was my only lead to finding this madman. **_

"_**I've been thinking Alex… that maybe you were the one who took Maria from me." James said. I could hear him perfectly, but he was nowhere near me. **_

"_**No… James… you killed her." I called back. I will be the first to admit my attempts to calm James down were feeble, but it was worth a shot. **_

_**James laughed, "No… that wasn't Maria. It… couldn't have been… I was… she… we were happy." The walls of my house began to shift and creek, as I found the staircase to the basement they slowly covered themselves with rust. **_

"_**Me and Maria, we were… we…" James began to laugh once more, it blared in my ears and forced me to cover them. **_

_**Indeed, my evening had taken a turn for the worst. James continued to ramble on about who knows what. I did my best to block him out. My basement was a modest place, I had laid throw rugs and wall décor intelligently throughout its interior. But thanks to James little freak-out session everything was dripping with blood now. Needless to say, I was more than upset. **_

"_**James! My flipping basement is covered in blood!" **_

"_**They're tears… tears of children lost, women suffering, men dying… of Maria… she was everything I had…" I could hear James begin to cry, I shook my head and let out a sigh.**_

"_**Freaking James…" I continued to walk towards my fuse box as James wept in the background, once again sad music began to play. **_

_**It surprises me, even to this day, how well I handled that situation. I think it was because James seemed more hell-bent on Maria then on me. So, despite the gruesome setting slowly forming in around me, I carried no fear whatsoever. **_

_**My flashlight shined onto the fuse box, sure enough James had turned off all the switches. If that wasn't enough, he'd taken the liberty to completely severe the main power line to the rest of the house. Flipping the switches was no longer an option, I would have to hunt down James in the dark - and then kick him the frick out of my house. **_

"_**James… it's late, I'm tired your tired, look let's…" **_

"_**I am tired… I'm so tired Alex. Maria, I keep dreaming about her, I can see her face. But, then you're there, with her. You and Maria are… together… why?" **_

_**In case you didn't fully understand what was happening, James was slowly making me into an enemy in his mind. At the time I didn't realize this, I thought maybe that he'd simply taken some drugs and was in the middle of hallucinating. **_

_**My theory was corrected however, when I felt cold steel slide across my calf muscle, cutting into my flesh with ease. **_

"_**Mother of pearl!" I screamed dropping to the floor. **_

_**James laughed, "The pain." He whispered gently in my ear, "Is… your friend." **_

_**I spun my head around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man who slashed me. I did, I watched his body slowly slink back into the darkness. It was when I gazed down at my bleeding leg that I realized the situation was slightly more serious than I had realized. **_

_**Clamping down the wound, I thought of the best way to remove this man from my house. Calling the police was an option, but something told if I tried to use my landline it would be severed. The only option then was my cell phone, which lay happily in my room two floors above me. **_

"_**James… let's have some rules about this engagement." I called out into the dark. Surprisingly the madman answered. **_

"_**Ok." **_

"_**Uh… let's see… you can't slice me anymore. You have to use a weapon like the one I have." I stated holding out my fly swatter. Would this actually work? I could only pray it would. **_

"_**Ok." He replied indifferently. Remarkable! Never did I think James would actually approve of such ridicules rules. "I will… find a fly swatter." he stated, the pattering of his footsteps followed. **_

"_**Good, that gives me some time." I muttered to myself trying to stand on my sliced leg. Background music continued to play as I slowly limped up two flights of stairs to my second floor. By this point my entire house had become… rusty. The drywall hand been replaced with iron gates, my ceiling fixtures were now hooks covered with blood. I remember thinking clearly that James would never be allowed in my house again after this day. My bare feet clanked against the metal floor beneath me, my blood seeped into its cracks. **_

_**Amusing no? I didn't think so at the time, but looking back on it how many people can say they lived through such an event? But I digress, eventually I made it to my room. I checked it as swiftly as possible, making sure James wasn't hiding in some corner. When it seemed clear I entered, and when I did, the final battle began. **_

_**The main door shut behind me, my flashlight began to dim and the room grew at least twenty times in size! It felt like I was standing in the middle of an arena. Then, he began to speak once again. **_

"_**Were you… following me?" James asked. **_

_**Unsure how to reply I said, "Maybe?" an easy enough answer. **_

"_**What about Maria, you left her behind… doesn't she mean anything to you?" **_

"_**You mean the spaghetti?" I asked limping forward some. I will admit that the blood loss had made me slightly light headed. "It's there… on the table… waiting for you!" I called out to him. **_

_**James mumbled something under his breath, "Oh? What about you? Why isn't Maria for you? I thought you two were… in love." **_

"_**James, I'm not gonna lie I am so confused right now." I peered around to see if James was nearby, still no sign of him. It was difficult to see anything at this point, in fact, it didn't even feel like there was a floor beneath me. I floated, in an abyss of darkness, the only sense that was strong was my ears picking up the music playing in the background. **_

"_**Let's put this to rest. It's time to end this." James said to me with a dry voice. **_

_**I shrugged my shoulders, "Whatever man, lets just do this so you can go home." **_

_**There was silence, and I waited for his strike. He came from behind, or was it the side… strange I can't really remember. His moves were so swift, he came down upon me with all his might. In his hand rested a black flyswatter, I first met it when it struck across my face. It stung my flesh, I attempted to fight back but James was in a fury! He swatted with vigor and poise, every movement was thought out and planned. His swats so powerful, they overwhelmed me! I was forced to cover myself for protection. His swats continued, hammering me over and over. My bare skin was red and throbbing, James would not cease. **_

_**He never made a sound during that time, he never laughed, grunted, or screamed. I caught a glimpse of his face, he was completely indifferent on the matter. Only his hand moved as he sent judgment upon me with that… flyswatter. Like I child who had learned self -helplessness, and curled into the fetal position. At this point my only hope was that I wouldn't be killed by swats. **_

_**Then, just as quickly as it had begun, it ended. The swats stopped, the room feel silent, and once again I felt ground underneath my feet. I uncurled from my defensive position and looked around. My room had returned to normal, and James was nowhere to be found. **_

_**Later on, as I limped to my kitchen, I found a note resting there. It was signed by James, and simply read, **_

_**Maria… **_

**As for James himself, I never saw him after that fateful day. I believe that to be for the better, for if our paths ever did cross again… I would be sure to flee as quickly as my feet would allow. **

**And so ends another tale of my extraordinary life. If you enjoyed that ramble, perhaps it is time for you to see my others. Being as old as I, the stories start to pile up. Till then, **

**- Acid35 **


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